


Dive

by AllDaveKat, Apiaristic



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Accessible Version Available, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Gore, Illustrations, Isolation, M/M, Mostly Nonverbal Dirk, Past Suicide Attempt, Roleplay Logs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:49:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24786475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllDaveKat/pseuds/AllDaveKat, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apiaristic/pseuds/Apiaristic
Summary: When Dirk was sixteen, all he wanted was to meet his friends. The Game was going to make that possible. But the Game didn’t happen.Four years later, a mysterious signal in the ocean calls Dirk and Hal to investigate, and they discover they might not be as alone as they thought.
Relationships: Auto-Responder | Lil Hal/Sollux Captor/Dirk Strider
Comments: 20
Kudos: 85





	Dive

**Author's Note:**

> This is a hybrid art/writing roleplay-style collaborative fic between [@Koa_Doodles](https://twitter.com/koa_doodles/) (Hal), [AllDaveKat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllDaveKat) (Dirk), and [Apiaristic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apiaristic/pseuds/Apiaristic) (Sollux).
> 
> A text only/screen reader accessible version of this fic exists [here](https://alldavekat.tumblr.com/post/621494441136570368/dive-chapter-one-accessible-text).

Familiar red text flashes on Dirk’s shades, and he blinks his eyes open. It’s 6:13 am. He sits up and winces as his back twinges because, whoops, he fell asleep at his fucking desk last night. Again.

He’d been up late, putting the finishing touches on a surprise gift he’s making for Hal. Well, as much of a surprise as it can be when Hal literally lives in Dirk’s glasses and sees everything he does. 

Hal knows Dirk’s been making a waterproof smartwatch, at least, and that it’s got the capability to track Dirk’s heart rate and vitals and all that good shit. And he obviously knows that their twentieth “birth” day (aka the day infant Dirk flew in on a meteor and crashed into a dead, waterlogged Earth) is coming up in a few days. So there’s a good chance he might suspect something, but he hasn’t said anything about it, and neither has Dirk.

Over the last few years, after it became apparent the Game wasn’t going to happen, Dirk and Hal’s dumpster fire of a relationship cooled off into something a little less awful. Dirk thinks they both realized how exhausting it was to be pissed at each other all the time. And maybe they also realized how much they needed each other, especially now that they were never going to meet their friends in meatspace. Dirk would never admit that anywhere Hal could hear him, though. 

Anyway, their shit’s not all peaches and cream, or anything, it’s just. A little less hellish than it used to be. 

TT: Morning, Hal. You’re waking me up approximately seventeen minutes earlier than normal, what gives?

He yawns, standing up and going to his cupboard to grab an orange soda. Breakfast of champions. He notes with annoyance that this is one of his last bottles, he’s gonna have to go diving again soon to get more supplies. 

His Bro only left him enough supplies to last through his sixteenth year. Luckily, there are plenty of fully stocked grocery stores at the bottom of the ocean with enough supplies to last Dirk well beyond the natural length of his life. He mentally says an ironic prayer to the long-deceased CEO of Wal-Mart for building twenty-six stores in Houston city, as he chugs his flat, lukewarm soda. Mmm, delicious.

TT: A transmission? What the fuck. Alright, I’ll take a look.

Dirk sits down at his desk and sets down his half-empty soda, logging into his computer. He locks it every night, because it’s a good security practice, even though there’s literally no one else alive on this entire planet aside from Roxy.

Roxy, who’s nearly two thousand miles away, who Dirk desperately wants to see. 

Okay, time for a little backstory, so buckle up.

When Dirk was sixteen, all he wanted was to meet his friends, Jake and Jane and Roxy, and his teenage Bro. The Game was going to make that possible. But the Game didn’t happen.

Dirk realized pretty quickly that his worst fear was being realized; that was going to be alone for the rest of his miserable life, save for a couple of robots and a copy of his thirteen-year-old self’s brain that lived in his shades and fucking hated him. So he grabbed his rocketboard and a backpack full of sodas and beef jerky and launched himself out over the ocean just to try and see how far he could get toward Roxy’s house. 

Because he honestly didn’t give a shit anymore. 

Hal was yelling at him the entire time to stop, telling him he was going to fucking kill himself doing this. Dirk didn’t care. He made it about six hours before he ran out of fuel and crash landed into the vast ocean with no land in sight. 

The only reason he survived was that Hal called Sawtooth soon after Dirk’s departure, ordering him to follow behind them and bring spare fuel. Dirk floated on his board as they waited for rescue, being tossed by the waves, hating himself and hating Hal even more for trying to save his life.

Even with Sawtooth’s help, they barely made it home. In any case, it was clear that the journey could not be made with their current equipment. So Dirk and Hal began working together to build a ship.

That’s actually part of the reason Dirk is building the waterproof watch for Hal. It isn’t a purely selfless gift; it’s useful to their plan as well. Much as Dirk hates to admit it, Hal is better than him at identifying items that might be usable as ship parts, and it’ll cut down significantly on his scavenging time if he can take Hal with him.

Back in the present, Dirk opens up the file Hal sent him.

He stares at it and almost laughs because holy shit, this thing is corrupted to _fuck_. It almost looks like a joke. He scrolls through it, able to parse out a couple garbled lines that indicate it’s a transmission of some sort, but that’s all he can tell.

TT: You were right, this is some deep fried bullshit.  
TT: I can’t even get a hint of where it’s coming from or who it was meant for, let alone what it’s trying to say.   
TT: It’s probably an automated message from an old military base or something, right. There’s gotta be a couple other places in the world with buildings partially above water. Maybe some four hundred year old computer that runs on solar or something glitched out and tried to send us an email.  
TT: I mean, there’s no way it’s from an actual person.   
TT: …  
TT: Is there?

Dirk knew, he _knew_ , okay, that of course there wouldn’t be a person behind the signal. That would be insane. Still, some part of him sinks in disappointment, making him realize how naive he was for holding onto even a small amount of hope. 

He hates that he can sense Hal being delicate with him, cautious about sending him into another self-destructive spiral. It’s unspoken, but it’s there, and it’s so different from the way their relationship used to be. It’s still weird to Dirk. To have someone who knows him so deeply, inside and out, who doesn’t actually fucking hate his guts. He tries not to think about it too much, in case it doesn’t last. 

He smirks when Hal brings up the project he’s been working on. 

TT: Aw, and here I thought it was gonna be a nice birthday surprise for you.  
TT: That was sarcasm. I know nothing surprises you.  
TT: But still, we could have both pretended. For the irony.

Dirk rolls his chair over to the work bench where the watch is lying among tools and various robotic limbs. He picks it up, examines it, makes sure the adjustments he was satisfied with last night still hold up in the light of day. Sets it down and nods to himself.

TT: Alright, I’m sure you’ve already got an idea of how this is gonna go, but I’ll roll through it just to make sure we’re on the same page.  
TT: Once I connect you to the watch, you’ll exist in both the shades and the watch at the same time. It’ll basically be like a second pair of eyes for you. At least, as long as the shades and watch are within reasonable distance of each other, a few miles or so. That should work fine for short-range expeditions.  
TT: If we go outside that range and lose connection, your consciousness will split, leaving a cached version of your memory in the shades and your main “self” in the watch. Then you’ll re-meld together when we come back within range. It should be fairly seamless.

He hopes, anyway. It’s not like he’s had a chance to test this out before... but Hal knows that, too.

He takes a deep breath.

TT: What do you say, sport? You ready to try on some new clothes?

Dirk snorts. 

TT: Of course, princess. Your ego is clearly suffering, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure you know exactly how cute you look. Coochie-coochie-coo and all that.  
TT: Okay. Let’s make this shit hapen.

He takes his shades off and sets them down, knowing Hal can still talk to him through the speakers if he needs to. Working silently, he plugs a few things in, fiddles with wires, gets everything set up. Then, his hand hovering over the enter key, he takes a deep breath.

“Here goes,” he says in a hoarse voice. 

He doesn’t usually talk out loud to Hal, preferring to type or think or even sign at him when he can. But Hal can’t see him from this angle, and he feels like he needs to say _something_. If only to alert Hal to clench his digital butthole in preparation. Because this shit is definitely taking place. As soon as he hits this button. Which he’s about to do. Right now.

Fuck, he really hopes this works. If it doesn’t... Well, he’s not sure what he’ll do, actually. He’s never been able to back Hal up properly, and they both know it. There’s some real risk involved to what they’re doing here. But if it _works_ … 

Dirk pictures Roxy’s face lighting up when he shows up on their doorstep. The happy tears in their eyes. 

He thinks about not being alone for the rest of his fucking life.

He bites his lip and hits the key. 

A loading bar appears on the computer screen, as expected, and he waits the excruciating ninety seconds it takes to execute the program. Finally the watch blinks on. Dirk unplugs his shades and slides them on. He picks up the watch and holds it up to eye level. 

“Hal? You in there?” 

He’d swear his voice isn’t shaking, but he’s too preoccupied with imagining sixteen different possible failure scenarios and the immediate steps he’d take to correct each one.

Dirk exhales in relief, leaning back in his chair. His heart _is_ pounding, as Hal so helpfully pointed out, and he huffs out a short laugh.

TT: You little shit. TT: Thank fuck that worked.

He deliberately doesn’t think about what he might have done if it hadn’t worked. 

After inspecting the watch a bit more, he straps it tightly onto his wrist.

TT: How’s it feeling? Anything need adjusting? You seem normal enough to be cracking shitty jokes, at least.  
TT: You think you’re ready to go on our little expedition to find the source of that shitty signal, or do you need more time to get all dressed and made up?  
TT: You do look pretty, by the way. I’m loving what this watch does for your figure.

He wonders idly, a recurring rumination, how healthy it is for both of them to keep doing this. He flirts with Hal all the time, as, like, an ironic joke. It’s funny. Not hot. He’s definitely not romantically and/or sexually attracted to an artificial intelligence based on his own brain scan, that would be supremely fucked up, even for him. Ha. Yeah.

Dirk’s heart swells with pride and satisfaction. He worked damn hard on that watch and Hal sounds genuinely pleased with it, to whatever extent he can feel and express emotions anyway. Not that Dirk’s one to talk about emotional unavailability.

TT: Glad to hear it’s up to your standards.   
TT: As entertaining as it would be to sit here and try to one-up each other in ironic birthday sentiments, I think I’d rather check out this signal sooner than later. No sense wasting daylight. 

Dirk won’t admit it, but he’s pretty fucking excited about taking Hal out for a dive. It’s been years since Hal’s been able to go for a swim, and although he’s never complained about that particular aspect of his existence, Dirk knows he’s been missing it. He knows because he would miss it, were he in Hal’s place.

He grabs an energy bar first and swallows it down in a few bites, knowing Hal will bitch if he doesn’t eat something more substantial than orange soda for breakfast. Then he changes into his wetsuit, as usual not bothering with any modesty in front of Hal. They did share the same body for thirteen years, after all, so there’s not much point in hiding anything. 

He trades his shades out for his diving mask, which he’s customized with triangular lenses. The mask has a few features that Hal can tap into as well, including a waterproof camera and a screen to display messages and stats, including his heart rate and oxygen levels. Dirk also equipped Hal’s watch with the same thought-to-text capabilities as his shades, so they’ll be able to communicate underwater.

He stows his diving flippers in his backpack, steps on the board and slides open his bedroom window, shooing a seagull out of the way. The ocean air is cool against his skin as he jets out the window, flying low over the water.

They fly for about forty-five minutes in a straight line, with Dirk following the GPS readings displayed on his diving mask. Hal mixes music for Dirk through his waterproof headphones that he’d made a while back to avoid losing his mind during those long, boring (lonely) scavenging trips. He lets his mouth turn up in a small smile as it sinks in that he won’t have to do that alone anymore. He won’t have to do _anything_ alone. He’s got Hal.

When the GPS shows they’re right on top of the signal location, Dirk flies down low and hovers over the water. He shifts on the board so he’s sitting, then swaps his shoes out for flippers and cracks his knuckles eagerly.

TT: This looks like the spot, yeah? Ready to take the plunge? 

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on twitter~  
> [@Koa_Doodles](https://twitter.com/koa_doodles/)  
> [@AllDaveKat](https://twitter.com/alldavekat/)  
> [@Apiaristic](https://twitter.com/apiaristic/)
> 
> This fic is being written as a roleplay on the [Strilonde RP Jamz discord server](https://discord.gg/y2b9Eu2) (18+)


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